>> this is "bbc world news america. reporting from washington, i am katty kay. in greece, the government is new and temporary, but the problems are old and permanent. europe is on edge again. the population milestone. for the very first time, the majority of american babies are not white. and she was the queen of disco. tonight, we'll look back on the life and music of>> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. -- of donna summer. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and elsewhere around the

globe. a new government was sworn into office in greece today, but there is not much point in learning its name, because tomorrow, it will be dissolved. this political upheaval is creating even more uncertainty, with a major rating agency punishing the politicians by downgrading greek debt even further. there are reports that hundreds of millions of euros are being withdrawn from the banks. the bbc's matthew price has the coverage. >> it is a government with little power in a country with dwindling options. they swore in a cabinet of technocrats. they are to guide agrees to a second election in as many months. this is becoming a ritual that is costing them time. for two years now, the greeks have been withdrawing large sums from their banks to pay bills

and also to try to assure their money is safe if the country is forced out of the euro. it is not a run on the banks, but some fear that may not be far off. >> we hear so many scenarios, this man said, we just do know not what the truth is. only europe can find the solution. "i do not have any hope," another said. "things are just going to get wars." this afternoon, a senior eu leaders held a conference call. among them, the new french president. there are signs that he is prepared to be bold in shaping the european response to this crisis. the british prime minister david cameron before that call had told the euro zone to find a solution, and fast. >> a stable, successful euro zone, with well-capitalized and regulated banks, and supportive

monetary policy across the eurozone, or we are on uncharted territory which causes use rick -- huge risks for everybody. >> in new york, there was the general assembly, and there was a call for continued economic reform in europe but also for renewed investment in transport, energy, and technology, and there was a caution for those predicting the breakup of the euro. >> the euro is more than a mere monetary construction. it is about product of integration, and this political process is what unites us beyond momentary economic difficulties. >> but those difficulties have been increasing. they are paying more to borrow money, not helpful in a country where the system is in need of

massive government funding to stay afloat. they believe the longer the greek crisis drags on, the greater the chance they and others will be dragged down further. this is a slow-moving story. no one knows where it is headed. it is that which is so on nerving. matthew price, bbc news, brussels. >> under irving indeed. for more on the ripples that it is in the world, we want to pick up on what matthew price was saying there, that this is a slow-moving story, but are we near decision time now for greece? >> they are essentially being asked to reconsider the decision that they took in the previous election, and in the election has now been called for late june. they are very clearly playing a hardball game, saying if you continue down this path an elected government that will not stick with the imf program, we

are essentially going to cut you off from economic funding, and you will go bankrupt. at that point in time, greece can decide whether or not they want to stay in the euro. >> some are not talking about whether greece will leave the euro zone but when in greece will leave the euro zone. >> that may be a little too pessimistic, if you like, because at and we have to listen to even what they are saying. they say they want to keep trees in the euro. but they want to repudiate the imf program, and he somehow expects nothing is going to happen from that. if he is elected, which she may or may not be, but if he is elected, he ditches the imf program, europe cuts off funding, and then it greece has about six weeks or so of money before it runs out of cash. in the period of time, they will

have to decide what to do. it will be extremely volatile. but i think it is too soon to say that they would want to quit the europe. >> it is going to be a hot summer increase in many ways. is it possible for greece to have what it is promising, which is less austerity? we also have a new french president, promising the same thing. is it a realistic possibility for them under stress to turn around and say that the austerity did not work, we are going to forget this plan and change to something else? >> the short answer is no. if we think about and orientation towards growth, fiscal stimulus, that is absolutely not going to happen. not in greece, not in europe, and it is also not what françois hollande would agree with.

there is the distance between angela merkel and françois hollande, and in late june, we know the differences are going to be not that big but much more limited. >> meanwhile, international markets are looking at what is happening in greece and saying they do not like it. >> markets do not like uncertainty, and what they have right now is uncertainty. that is what they respond adversely to. we have this in spain with respect to the spanish banking system in particular, but i think once we have established, which i believe we will at the end of june -- there really is not much sunlight between the french president and angela merkel. a path forward for europe. a lot of this uncertainty will dissipate, because greece at this point in time will have had a chance to decide. >> i am so glad you ended on an optimistic note.

>> a pleasure. >> it has taken almost two decades to get one man to trial, but after just one day, a judge in the hague suspended the proceedings. there was a ruling that the prosecution failed to give evidence to the defense. it could cause a delay. 8000 men and boys were killed allegedly on the orders of the former general. our reporter is there and filed this report. >> he came to court knowing that they would be devoted solely to the most victorious massacre of the entire bosnian war, the killing of 7000 men and boys in four days in july 1995. >> this was and will remain genocide. >> he listened with that reaction as a prosecutor said the fact of the crime has never been in serious dispute.

there is his personal, criminal responsibility. the enclave had been surrounded am bombarded for three years. 40,000 people had fled the surrounding countryside and were crowded into the narrow down. forces overran them on july 11. the court's saw video of blood in the main streets. 25,000 men, women, and children were loaded onto buses and forcibly expelled. 7000 men and boys were forcibly round up. hear, a cameraman shows a man being forced to call into the hills for his son to turn himself in. he did. he and his father were both killed with all of the others. 7000 were murdered by firing squad and their bodies disposed of in mass graves. it was a highly disciplined,

military operation. >> they carried out their murderers orders with incredible discipline, organization, and military efficiency. capturing, detaining, transporting, murdering, and burying over 7000 men and boys. it was a truly amazing feat of utter brutality. >> the court heard that in january of this year, the general's defense lawyers submitted a plea, claiming that when the killings took place, the general was in belgrade at a wedding. the prosecution said this was true. he was at that wedding, but it was inconceivable that the killing on that scale could have taken place without his knowledge and unless he gave authority for it. >> listening carefully, focusing threat. he has not spoken yet. he denies all of the charges against him. bbc news, the hague.

>> and in other news from around the world come two days after the controversial reelection, the head of the main syrian opposition bloc is resigning. he has led the syrian national council by consensus rather than election since it was founded in october of last year. he was reelected in a vote held on tuesday. united states is suspending most sanctions against burma in response to reforms. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton will allow american companies to invest in burma, but an arms embargo will remain. and a chinese activist has given details of his torture and retribution they said they suffered at the hands of chinese authorities. the bbc has obtained the first interviews with his family members since he escaped from house arrest last month and fled to the american embassy in beijing, causing a diplomatic

crisis. we have more from damascus. >> the human rights activist whose daring escape into the arms of american diplomats put china and america at loggerheads. for 15 days, he had been under guard at a beijing hospital. just how he managed to flee his illegal house arrest, and then adding dozens of guards watching him is becoming more clear. first, he had to scale the walls of his house. as he did, he fell and broke his foot. he head -- hid in a neighbor's pig sty and then late that night went to the river. he could not swim across, but the guards on the bridge were asleep. villagers found him at 5:00 in the morning and hit him. and he was driven with his brother's house to a town where he met activists to escort him to beijing. this is the first interview with his brother. when the guards discovered he

had escaped, he was seized and interrogated for three days and three nights. >> they sat me in a chair, bound my feet with iron chains, put my arms behind my back and handcuffed me, put my hands upward. then they slapped my face and stamp my feet with their shoes. >> by that time, he was safely here at the american embassy. the local communist party bosses were furious. >> i resisted for a long time. in the end, i could not hold out any more. i did not want to name those who helped my brother, but i had to. >> his wife said that the enraged officials also attacked their 32-year-old son, who tried to defend himself. >> so many people were beating him that his face was bleeding, and his trousers were torn. he said, "mom, i need to escape

now." >> a charge of attempted murder. in beijing, the wife and children remain confined in a hospital. he told us today he still cannot walk. his wife can only go outside with approval. they have been allowed to apply for passports to go to america. if the passports are approved, he could be on his way to new york within a fortnight, and the issue will mean they will have to leave retribution -- relatives behind at risk for further retribution. bbc news, beijing. >> welcome to the changing color of america. for the first time in america, racial and ethnic minorities now make up half of all those born in the country. it is being seen as a watershed moment. for more, i spoke with a representative from the britons institution has studied these. thank you very much for coming

in to join me. this has been part of a trend, so what does this number actually change? >> well, this tipping point i do not think is a surprise to many people in the united states. all you have to do is look around at the playgrounds and picnic tables and all across america where there are families and children's to know that there are very different hues and backgrounds and so forth. we have been expecting this for a long time, but these numbers really put an exclamation mark on this and gives us a focus of our attention on that this is really a change in america in a way we only sort of casually thought of. >> some suggest the new immigrant group, many coming from latin america, are not going to melt, i think is the expression, into the american population in the way past waves of immigrants did. >> i think that is a misapprehension.

one of the things we find is that young children when they come here, their parents may be immigrants, but they learn english. they want to learn english. by the third generation, and hardly know and spanish because they are part of the country. there is an increase in interracial marriages and interracial dating. even within the hispanic population, different groups, mexicans, there is interracial marriages, as well as with whites. i think the young people today do not have that kind of racial stereotypes in their head that older generations may have about them. >> in that case, why is this such a politically sensitive issue? it is an election year, and we've already seen it immigration raised in the campaign. where is the political gain in this? >> i think i talk mostly about young people. it is the older part of the population having a little trouble getting used to all of

this. >> they are concerned about these numbers. >> they are concerned about any kind of change. the over-the population is made up of a large population of baby boomers, largely white, born in the 1950's and 1960's, where we did not have a lot of immigration, kind of an insulated generation. and there was segregation. they have lived their lives a little bit away from all of this globalization, and now, when they see large numbers of young people coming in with different backgrounds, they are scared perhaps that their tax money is going to be going to people who are not personally associated with them and that there may be things in this country that do not seem quite right to them, but this is the older part of america. >> numbers that are getting an awful lot of attention in america, particularly in this presidential election. you are watching "bbc world news america."

still to come on the program, facebook is set to launch its multibillion-dollar share sale. we find out more. now, to the passing of the olympic flame. the fire is officially in british hands tonight, despite the rain in athens. tomorrow, it will catch the plane to london. we have a report. >> the olympic flame better get used to this. after one week in the greek sunshine, the torch was given a rather damp sendoff in athens this afternoon. despite that, the london 2012 denigration, it will not dampen the impact of the revel -- the arrival of the flame. >> princess anne. >> the attached paper of a 70- day fuse that is going to detonate with a great pyrotechnic display.

>> as the president of the british olympic association, she has been an essential figure in the preparation for the london games. >> by the queen and other members of the royal family. >> back in 1976, princess anne became the first member of the royal family to compete in the alembics as part of a team in montreal. she is known as a fierce competitor, proud of her sporting heritage. >> i would have found it really difficult to do it on a home patch. i would hate to be doing it now. it has got worse. >> because of the pressures? >> i think so much, yes, to everybody. one or two of the athletes who perhaps had higher profiles. >> with the flay now safely in british hands, tomorrow, it

starts its journey back to the u.k. could this be the moment when the games really take off? >> now, how much is a social network with almost 1 billion users actually worth? today, facebook says it believes the estimate is upwards of $38 per share or $100 billion plus. this is attracting a fair amount of interest. all of this despite the fact we really do understand whether or not facebook can generate profits. we have this report. >> it started as the facebook in 2004, the brainchild of a heart student called mark zuckerberg. it has grown and changed year by year to become one of the most part of businesses of the internet age with 900 million

uses -- users. $104 billion is the value now put on facebook. >> we are all here because of the people using facebook. >> this is video has been shown to potential investors over the last fortnight. the demand for the shares was high, so the price has been raised. >> it was almost driven entirely by facebook. >> this man runs the world's biggest advertising business, but facebook will now be valued at six times the price. >> there are a lot of questions combat but people are looking at the growth, the growth of the commerce -- e-commerce, and they are looking at the future profitability of facebook to be such to justify the $100 billion

valuation. >> and these people will be vital, the users. they are sharing more and more information and seeing more and more advertising. and even the company admits, this will be a challenge. as more and more people use their telephones to access facebook, advertisements on a small screen are a good idea. >> it tries to sell me stuff on my phone. i find it annoying, actually. >> i would not like it. >> it is not what i care for. >> this week's decision by general motors to pull its advertising from facebook because it was not selling any cars adds to the uncertainty, and some investment firms are advising caution. >> we are telling our investors to hold off. number one, we do not know what the balance sheet of the company

will slide. we want to understand the business before we tell people to invest. >> but small investors key to get in on the ads, the shares could soar when trading begins. it could prove that online friendship really is that valuable. >> facebook and the $100 billion question. and she was the queen of disco, whose pulsating tunes with the sound track for a whole generation. today, donna summer died after a battle with cancer. we look back on her musical career. good, soh, it's so good, so good ♪ >> this was in 1977, the sound of the future. >> she started off defining an

era. with the tract "i feel love," high energy, and then onward. the dance music. she was so influential. >> donna had learned to sing in a gospel choir, but they did not teach her this. you, baby ♪ love >> then she met a producer. she later regretted it. >> i was tired of that all sex image, because it was not me. it was an image i was playing, but it was not me, and i've always resented it. >> in the 1980's, she found god, and she lost many of her fans,

including many of heard gave fans. -- many of her gay fans. but another producer wanted to work with her. >> she was a disco. talking about music in these lovely surroundings. it made me want to make pop records. >> 29 top 40 hits. and the songs that changed the world's dance floors. donna summer, the queen of disco. ♪ >> and what better way to end a program? i am katty kay. for all of us at bbc world news, thank you for watching.

>> makes sense of international news at bbc.com/news. the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> this is kim -- about to feel one of his favorite sensations. at shell, we're developing more efficient fuels in countries like malaysia that can help us get the most from our energy resources. let's use energy more efficiently. let's go.

>> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet los angeles.

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